Not a word he utters, but by him is an observer ready. The angel on the right is the angel of bounty, the angel on the left the angel of justice. Just as bounty rules over justice, so also the right-hand angel rules over the left-hand angel. O angel on the right! You be the commander. Write down ten beautiful deeds for every beautiful deed he performs. O angel on the left! You be the follower. Write down nothing except what the angel on the right tells you to write. When the servant commits an act of disobedience, the angel on the right says, “Wait seven days before you write it down. Perhaps he will offer an excuse and repent.” What is all this? It is the result of one decree that God issued in the Beginningless: “My mercy precedes My wrath.” Listen to something even more wonderful: When the servant is disobedient, the command comes, “Pull down the curtain of his faith so that his faith may conceal and overpower his offense and sin.” So many offenses and acts of disobedience come together that they say, “O God, there is much offense, and the curtain of faith does not conceal it.” He says, “If the curtain of his faith does not conceal it, then pull down the curtain of My gen- erosity so that it will be concealed.”
